During the week beginning 13th February 2023 I decided to do a survey among my students and ask them the question, “Could you explain the carnival to me?” You see, as a foreigner to Brazil and being British I really have no idea about the meaning and tradition of the carnival period. It’s simply not in the British culture. In fact, it is a uniquely Brazilian festival. Or is it?
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The Brazilian Carnival: Is it Christian, Pagan or neither?
INTRODUCTION:
During the week beginning 13th February 2023 I decided to do a survey among my students and ask them the simple question, “Could you explain the carnival to me?” You see, as a foreigner to Brazil and being British, I really had no idea about the meaning and tradition of the carnival period. It’s simply not in the British culture. In fact, it is a uniquely Brazilian festival. Or is it?
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
I decided to ask them this question because after a few casual non-serious comments between myself and one or two students, I realised that they didn’t know the meaning of this spectacle either. So I decided, it was about time to do some research and put this question to bed once and for all. This is what I found. In this lesson I will add embedded references so that the facts can be checked. At the end of the lesson you will find a full list of references I used and read to gain my information.
NEW VOCABULARY: SURVEY, UNIQUELY, NON-SERIOUS, EMBEDDED, REFERENCES, TO GAIN
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
SECTION ONE:
The Carnival of Brazil (Portuguese: Carnaval do Brasil, is an annual Brazilian festival held on the Friday afternoon and subsequent days before Ash Wednesday at noon (12 o’clock), which marks the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period before and leading up to Easter. During Lent, Roman Catholics and some other Christians traditionally abstain from the consumption of meat and poultry, hence the term “carnival“, from the Latin word carnelevare, “to remove (literally, “raise”) meat.” The word “CARNIVAL” comes originally from the word “CARNELEVARE” (carne in Portuguese). Which means “to remove meat from the diet” (Abstinence). Which is what Jesus did during his 40 days in the wilderness avoiding Satan, prior to his death on the cross at Easter. In English we have an expression: I will give it up for Lent. Meaning that we will stop doing something for the Lent period. Maybe stop smoking or go on a diet.
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
This is where it gets complicated because, one of the questions I asked was, “Is carnival a religious festival?” The resounding answer always came back as, “No”. As I already knew, but didn’t let on in my survey, that in actual fact, they were already wrong, I knew that this weekend was the beginning of Lent and that Wednesday at noon (12 o’clock) was indeed the day and time that Brazilians return to work after the holiday and directly coincides with Ash Wednesday at noon, which in the Christian calendar marks the exact day and time that Lent begins.
NEW VOCABULARY: ASH WEDNESDAY, LENT, ABSTAIN, DIET, AVOIDING, SATAN, THE MIDDLE AGES, RESOUNDING, INDEED, COINCIDES, MARKS
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
DON’T FORGET TO READ YOUR STUDENT NEWSLETTER
SECTION TWO:
So what is Lent and what is its significance in the Christian holy book, The Bible?
Lent is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before beginning his public ministry. Lent is observed in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, Oriental Orthodox, Persian, United Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions across the world. Some Anabaptist, Baptist, Reformed (including certain Continental Reformed, Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches), and nondenominational Christian churches also observe Lent, although many churches in these traditions do not. But the story appears in the book of god (the bible) regardless of their denomination.
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And so, therefore, The Carnival and subsequently Lent are inextricably connected without a doubt. People around the world from all denominations of Christian religions spent this period leading up to the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday at midday) eating and drinking food sometimes to excess in preparation for observing and copying Jesus’s action of going into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights to avoid the devil, Satan and his influence.
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
NEW VOCABULARY: HOLY BOOK, SOLEMN, OBSERVANCE, COMMEMORATING, ENDURING, TEMPTATION, ACCORDING TO, PUBLIC MINISTRY, NONDENOMINATIONAL, REGARDLESS, THEREFORE, SUBSEQUENTLY, INEXTRICABLY, ALL DENOMINATIONS, LEADING UP TO, WILDERNESS, INFLUENCE
AUDIO REVISION:
Video Listening Section: Watch and listen to
The questions
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- What is Lent?
- When does Lent begin?
- How long does Lent last?
- Why is there a period of excessiveness before Ash Wednesday?
- In the bible what did Jesus do during the 40 days between Ash Wednesday at 12 midday and Easter?
- What is fasting?
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SECTION THREE:
So my question is this: What has gone wrong in Brazilian society that almost everyone I have spoken to this last week has not been able to answer my two simple questions.
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- What is the carnival?
- And is the carnival a religious festival?
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Why is it that, in what is arguably the most Catholic and fanatically religious country in the world, the religious significance of this period of excessiveness (the carnival) followed by a period of abstinence (Lent) has all but been forgotten? Maybe it’s simply education. In the UK I believe that it’s safe to say that compared to Brazil The UK is not on the same level in terms of religious dedication and commitment . What I mean by that is this: after years of stories of corruption, sexual deviance and assaults by members of said church on children the British public on the whole have woken up to the fact that religion offers them nothing but negativity and disgust.
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
When people are asked if they are religious, they will on the whole reply yes. However, ask them if they go to church and they will, with the same conviction say no. If you continue the conversation into areas of what we have experienced and read in the newspapers about child sex abuse etc. Then most people have washed their hands of such grubby practices and organisations. In my opinion at least, Britain is not a religious country in the sense of the word that most Brazilians might understand the question. Surprisingly, in what is statistically one of the most corrupt, if not the most corrupt societies in the world and without a doubt the most violent countries in the world Brazil doesn’t seem to have woken up to the fact that religion is in fact not worth the paper it’s written on. And yet, people still flood into the churches every week pledging their devotion to a god and a book they seemingly have no idea about when asked that simple question at the beginning of this lesson: “Is the carnival a religious holiday?” when clearly it is, according to every article I have read to enable me to write this lesson and yet not one student was able to answer that simple question.
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
NEW VOCABULARY: ARGUABLY, FANATICALLY, EXCESSIVENESS, ABSTINENCE, DEVIANCE, DISGUST, WASH THEIR HANDS OF, WOKEN UP, NOT WORTH THE PAPER IT’S WRITTEN ON, FLOOD INTO, PLEDGING, ACCORDING TO,
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SECTION FOUR:
In conclusion, I would like to say that my article is by no means an academic article, it is simply me asking a simple question and not getting an answer from those I felt should know the answer to. I simply did a google reach (the references are below) to be checked. I read three or four websites who all expressed the same historical information and repeated my findings here. These are not simply my opinions but the results of a search that anyone could do themselves should they be so inclined.
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
I am definitely NOT a christian (with a small “c” ). I can honestly say that I tried. In fact I tried every christian form of religion over the years, mainly searching for the same answers that most people search for. But search as I did, I didn’t find them. All I found was much the same hypocrisy in every church or church hall I tried. I can tell you that my intermittent switching between religious forms and running hot and cold was usually at the expense of my long suffering family and children who I am sure got sick to death of my initial enthusiasm and subsequent denigration of my current religious fad.
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For myself, it always lead to disappointment and now I simply believe that I will rot under a tree when I die. And I am happy with that. To date I have lived my life and will continue to do the best I can as a human, trying to not hurt people on my way and usually failing, without being labelled as a christian as most feel compelled to do. If I am wrong and when I arrive at the pearly gates and god tries to ask me a list of questions, I can assure you that I will be asking the question about his conduct on this planet because as far as I can see he has nothing to be proud of either.
NEW VOCABULARY: ARTICLE, TO BE INCLINED, HYPOCRACY, INTERMITTENT, RUNNING HOT AND COLD, INITIAL ENTHUSIASM, DENIGRATION, CURRENT, LEAD TO, FAILING, LABELLED AS, COMPELLED TO, PEARLY GATES, HIS CONDUCT, A FAD
AUDIO REVISION: Listen to the audio and read the paragraph at the same time.
WRITING EXERCISE:
Write 150 words describing: In your opinion, what role will religion play in the future of humanity. Use as many descriptive adjectives in your text as you can. If necessary do a Google search to find some interesting adjectives. Remember it’s just an opinion so there are no right or wrong answers.
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References:
NOTE: In terms of absolute number of murders in a year, Brazil has the most murders of any country in the world by total number (62,318) followed by India (29,000), the USA (25,000) and Mexico (24,576). In 2018, Brazil had a murder rate of 24.7 per 10,000 people. In 2017, Brazil had a murder rate of 29.2 per 100,000 population. Reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnevale
https://www.exploriada.com/travel-explorer-blog/2020/02/the-true-meaning-of-carnival/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/10/brazil-carnival-escape-crime-corruption
https://theculturetrip.com/south-america/brazil/articles/how-did-brazils-carnival-start/